The latest opus of Henry Kissinger is almost overwhelming. In tracing a path from past and recent order to the current dysfunctions, he confronts the reader with a mesmerizing panorama of cultures and worldview.
He can be analytical (Europe), fascinating (China), brilliant (India), perceptive (Russia), visionary (America) or...Delphic (the future). All emotions and rationality are interwoven in a Bayeux tapestry of personalities larger than life: presidents rescued from purgatory, bitter but unavoidable endings, and almost unmentionable conflicts. There are also omissions (true, while this is not a memoir, those events had "consequences") such as the overthrow of President Allende in Chile, the secret bombings during the Vietnam War (alluded to). To the contrary he remains equally discreet and humble regarding how his China coup came to fruition or how he literally "shuttled" Israel and Egypt into agreeing!
It would be absurd to dare to comment about what comes close to an epic tale mixing friend and foe. Almost all the protagonists mentioned by name had or have at least a vision, which even when not shared, deserves some form of awe. The villains remain largely marginal or unmentioned, since their "heritage" is more remembered for its vile vulgarity than for its passing or lasting pertinence.
The portraits in Dr. Kissinger's Westphalian pantheon are familiar but he approaches them as Velasquez might have done while painting them. Richelieu, Bismarck, Metternich, Theodore Roosevelt, Richard Nixon appear complex, at the same time flawed and reckless, self-centered but obsessed with achieving an almost cosmic-like system of checks and balances which led to equilibrium then, be it at a cost.
China and Islam followed different concepts. The Emperor ruled as if there was no one else at his level of all encompassing perfection. Islam believed in one empire ruled by one faith. Plurality did not figure in their vocabulary.
The so-called Westphalian concept which prevailed until the Cold War is now under attack, mostly from hybrid actors or degenerates into a tool for self-agrandisement for others. States such as Russia reclaim their past Czarist realm in the name of the previous order. Dr. Kissinger appears to show some degree of understanding for such sensitivities which require more therapy than humiliation.
He is a realist and admits that his demands for equilibrium are not always rooted in the imperative of purity. Rightly so, he highlights the role of the United States in Theodore Roosevelt's ambitions, in Woodrow Wilson's Utopia or in Nixon's Realpolitik, which were anything but unselfish. He recognizes that nowadays the United States is no longer the ultimate balancer and that past strategies need to adapt to, inter alia, the newcomers, the interlopers and the digital era. The former times of George Kennan's "Long Telegram" are past. So are the days when America spread values that others wanted to replicate.
I was struck by Dr. Kissinger's unequivocal appreciation of President George W. Bush who is indeed seen in a better light today than was the case six years ago. The EU is mentioned in half-baked ways, as could be expected, with the exception of the high marks given to the holy trio of Adenauer/de Gasperi/Schumann. Rightly, he notes that the question remains how Europe will steer its transition to a regional unit. Bureaucracy does not lead to unification--if that is the purpose--indeed.
While "World Order" feels often like a river overflowing its bed, it is reduced to more modest proportions when it meets the delta of the future. Dr. Kissinger argues that the universal must be paired with the reality of historical diversity. He argues in favor of "order within the various regions in the world so that they end up relating to one another." At present this looks difficult to achieve insofar as the world is divided and its components fall, more often than not, into pieces. China claims the mantle of the Son of Heaven. Russia becomes Czarist by everything but by name. Europe is ready to become an arts and crafts outlet. The Arab world is a sum of divisions split in syllogisms, split in denial, all under cover of the Quran.
Dr. Kissinger seems to think that divergent cultures can still be translated into a common system. He often refers to the European Westphalian system, which overcame all divisions. Indeed, but there were no Chinese, Muslims or "others" involved and the balance of powers achieved was certainly formidable then but looks now like a Rotary dispute over club rules. The fratricide wars then were horrible but were also partially ruled. Kings took their "cousins" prisoner but the choreography remained largely untouched until Sedan. By now the conventions and protocol look like dying species. The Christian world has not much to brag about given past atrocities but it eventually atoned for them. Today Jihadism sees the violence no longer as a means but as an end. The China of the Mings closed the door to conversion but left the windows open for some form of respect. Today the Arab world is victim (self-inflicted) of pan- regional sectarianism while Western Medecins sans Frontieres risk being beheaded rather than welcomed. The Arab states are on life-support and after we were fooled by the Arab Spring we learned that the pays reel is as infrequentable as the pays legal. Is there a choice? Dr. Kissinger dares to hope and he does so in pleading for a "superior order above the particular ideals of any one region or nation, a "modernization of the Westphalian system informed by contemporary realities." He suggests that "components, while maintaining their own values, need to acquire a second culture that is global, structural and juridical..." May he be proven right, as he often was. Still I might object that the remedy looks too Cartesian or high brown for today's consumer.
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